Yoga Origins

The history of yoga is a fascinating and oft revered topic. How many times do you hear about the “ancient” and sacred practice that’s thousands of years old? And how this Eastern practice and philosophy made its way West to eventually evolve into what we’ve come to know as modern yoga? But what we know [...]

A new film, AWAKE: The Life of Yogananda, following the life and impact of Paramahansa Yogananda will be hitting the theaters this October. Known as a spiritual figure, Yogananda is credited for introducing millions of westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga in the 1920s and 30s and beyond.

Haven’t made it to see Yoga: The Art of Transformation? After NYC and San Francisco, the exhibit is now at its third and final venue, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Whether you’ve had the pleasure of visiting or not, curators of the Smithsonian have put in some effort so we can experience the historical retrospective from [...]

The exhibit may be over but the lecture series from “Yoga: The Art of Transformation” at the Smithsonian in D.C. lives on through the magic of YouTube and the courtesy of the Freer Sackler Galleries. The exhibit, which opened October 19, 2013 and almost didn’t due to the government shutdown, featured rare yogic art and objects spanning [...]

“Yoga: The Art of Transformation” looks at yoga with a historical perspective — which might disappoint those who go to the exhibit looking for insight on the modern practice. When the exhibit opened at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Asian Art on October 19th (it will run until January 26th, and admission is free to the public), this is what visitors may have had in mind.

by Bob Weisenberg The Bhagavad Gita is so rich and versatile that it tends to take on the character of the translator or commentator: Give it to an historian and you get history. (Feuerstein) Give it to a Bhakti (yoga of love) and you get love. (Schweig) Give it to a teacher of dharma (life [...]

Many of us rise and shine with the sun salutations, but do we know the history behind the sequence?* Yoga scholar Mark Singleton shares his take from his book Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, via Decolonizing Yoga. Mark Singleton is also a co-founder (with James Mallison) of the Roots of Yoga project, a [...]

Hear ye, hear ye, yoga shall be museumified. The Smithsonian in Washington, DC will debut the first visual history of yoga exhibit in October 2013 and we shall marvel and look on with awe-inspiring delight at more than 120 objects borrowed from 25 museums and private collections in India, Europe, and the United States showing thousands [...]

Happy Birthday, Yogacharya B. K. S. Iyengar! Born December 14th, 1918 the “Lion of Pune” turns a young 94 years of age today. The 11th of 13 children, Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja grew up battling multiple diseases including malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and general malnutrition. At 15 years old he moved to Mysore to live and study [...]